Bearings (assembly Toolbox)
Insert standard bearings from the built-in Toolbox catalog straight into an assembly — pick a designation like 6205 or NU205, drop it on a shaft for an automatic concentric mate, and get a proper BOM row with quantity and mass. Bearings are purchased parts, so they never need to be sketched or modeled.
Bearings are standard purchased components — they always follow a catalog, so hammer8 treats them like SolidWorks Toolbox: you insert them into an assembly from the built-in catalog, you never sketch or model one. Each insert arrives as a real component with a proper BOM identity ("Bearing 6205"), and repeated inserts of the same designation share one library part, so quantities aggregate.
Steps
- In an assembly, open Insert ▸ Bearing (Toolbox)… — from the insert menu, the Assembly ribbon's button, or ⌘K "Bearing".
- Pick a family (deep groove, angular contact, thrust, cylindrical, taper, needle) and a designation — or type a size in the search box ("25×52", "6205"). If a shaft face is selected when the picker opens, the list is pre-filtered to bearings whose bore matches that shaft's Ø.
- Choose the detail level (Simplified · Rings · Full) and click the row. The bearing rides the cursor — drop it on the shaft and the concentric mate snaps on automatically (⌘-drop skips the snap; Esc cancels the insert entirely).
- Add an axial mate (coincident/distance) to seat it, like any component.
The catalog
The built-in table carries ~190 ISO designations across six families: deep groove (618/619/160/ 6000/6200/6300 + 60x/62x/68x miniatures), angular contact (72xx/73xx B), thrust (511xx/512xx), cylindrical roller NU 2xx/3xx, tapered roller (302xx/303xx/320xx) and needle (NA 49xx). Boundary dimensions follow ISO 15; internals (ball/roller size and count, raceways) are derived the way real bearings are proportioned — a 6205 gets its true 9 balls, an NU205 its 12 rollers.
Detail levels
| Level | Bodies | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Simplified | 1 — the exact silhouette | Big assemblies, dozens of bearings |
| Rings (default) | 2 — rings/washers/cone+cup with true raceways | Sections, drawings, interference checks |
| Full | 3 — rings + rolling elements fused into a cage | Renders, exploded views, real mass |
BOM and mass
Every generated bearing part carries its designation as the part number and steel as its body material, so the BOM shows "Bearing 6205 · qty 2" with a real mass — no manual stamping. Two 6205 inserts reference ONE library part; a different designation adds its own row.
Mating to a shaft
The generated part carries a concentric mate reference on its bore, so the drop-snap (and the manual Mate tool) prefer the bore over the outer surfaces. Dropping the bearing near a shaft of matching Ø creates the concentric mate in one gesture; the axial position stays yours to mate.
Sizing help
Ask the AI assistant to bearing_lookup a designation or a shaft size — it answers with dimensions, typical load ratings (C, C₀) and mass, in both directions (code → dims, dims → codes). Ratings are typical catalog values — verify against the manufacturer's datasheet.
Related
- Assemblies & mates — components, mates, grounding
- Gears (spur, helical, internal, rack) — gears remain modeled parts (Tools tab in part mode); bearings do not